U.N. agency toughens real-time tracking for planes after MH370

MONTREAL, March 7 (Reuters) - The U.N.'s aviation agency on
Monday announced new requirements for the real-time tracking of
civilian aircraft in distress, following the disappearance of
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 two years ago.

The International Civil Aviation Organization's governing
council approved proposals for planes to carry tracking devices
that can transmit their location at least once a minute in cases
of distress. Plane operators will have to ensure their flight
recorder data is recoverable, while the duration of cockpit
voice recordings is being extended to 25 hours, ICAO said in a
news release.

The requirements for the one-minute tracking and flight
recorder data are performance-based, meaning individual airlines
and plane-makers can choose the best option for them, from among
existing and emerging technologies, ICAO said.

The changes will take effect between now and 2021.

Last year Malaysia called for real-time aircraft tracking to
become a priority for the aviation industry following the loss
of MH370. The flight disappeared on March 8, 2014
shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239
people aboard.

"Taken together, these new provisions will ensure that in
the case of an accident the location of the site will be known
immediately to within six nautical miles, and that investigators
will be able to access the aircraft's flight recorder data
promptly and reliably," said ICAO Council President Olumuyiwa
Benard Aliu in the statement.

"They will also contribute to greatly improved and more
cost-effective search and rescue operations."

Two years after the tragedy, MH370 has still not been found.
On Monday, Malaysia was investigating a second piece of debris
found on the small Indian Ocean island of Reunion, suspected to
be from the plane.

So far, only a piece of wing, known as a flaperon,
discovered in July last year has been confirmed by authorities
to belong to the missing Boeing 777.